We woke excited that we would be arriving in Saint d’Olt this evening! We would stay Gite Roumiou, a highlight of any Camino! Owned by Sabine and Sylvain, two of the truest angels of any Camino I have ever met! They too are pilgrims and it shows as they know just what a pilgrim needs at the end of a long day hiking.
Five years ago they motioned for the kids to remove their packs, and an offer to keep them safe at their gite for us to visit the church and enjoy the town. Sabine brought refreshments for the crew, and some of the pilgrims had their feet soaking in tubs of water when we arrived. I knew this year I wanted to stay there! This morning we got out and had coffee and met up with a group of Ducati motorcyclists, my hubby has a Ducati, or as I put it “ he has the Ducati but I have a cute jacket”, and spent our coffee time chatting about Ducatis.
We were excited to meet up with Laurence, Paul and Maxance and walked to our gite together. They still had two hours to go, something my brain could not even comprehend after a long wonderful picnic in town. We picnicked until our wonderful gite opened. “The Cute Couple”, Flo and Oliver joined us. They really are a cute couple, but they earned their name yesterday when in the pastures of Aubrac I turned around to see him cradling her face in a pasture with such sweetness and affection. I took a picture with the hopes that I might meet this couple to share the image, and for no other reason really… I just thought they would want it! Super happy we got the chance to meet them, picnic with them, and have a few nights together.
It was hard saying buy to our new Camino family mom and the boys… they would stop two hours from us, they would then be about three to four hours past us tomorrow night. We had put ourselves in a situation where we would have a long hike the day of arrival in Conques, a night typically you would not want to be exhausted because of all the festivities a monastery would provide in the evening for the pilgrims. This would weigh heavy on our minds, the walk of 35 kilometers to Conques, we’ve done this and then some but the night of festivities wasn’t an ideal situation. I did have a “ golden ticket” a night in Estaing. One of the most picturesque places in France. There was no bed to be had was the rumor we were hearing. Dinner tonight at Gite Roumiou was splendid, festive, full of laughs, and many conversations we didn’t understand due to the language barrier. Sylvain was quick to translate and offered us “ the best view in the house”, upstairs overlooking the bells of the cathedral. A delightful night!!!!
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